By Gerald V. Paul

Come May 11, Guyana’s PPP and PNC (APNU / AFC) will go to the polls and it’s forward, ever. Backward? Never!

As the Eyes Guy was penning this column, a book came into our office, God Help the Child by Nobel laureate Toni Morrison, a searing tale on how childhood trauma shapes and misshapes the life of the adult.

The general and regional elections in Guyana are about protecting the future of our children and about in whose hands we want to put the future of our children in our dear land.

“Mr. President, I just returned from Guyana, where the dogs are urinating on former president’s Burnham’s  gravesite and the grass is overtaking the place. What are you going to do about it?” enquired the late Dr. Wolseley (Percy) Anderson at a community meeting in Toronto.

Past-president Bharrat Jagdeo promised to look into it. Oh, how the “mighty” PNC FSL Burnham has fallen, or as dem she: “Moon run, ‘til day ketch am.”

Thoughts and prayers, as Anderson passed away on May 3. But was it “Karmatic?” The evil that men do -28 years of rigged elections and dictatorship, only to end up in the urine of dogs and high grass. (Another dictator was caught in a latrine hole by American soldiers in Iraq.)

Now Burnham’s PNC is alive, as David “I am not Burnham” Granger’s current posture is that it was not that Burnhamite PNC has too little democracy but it had too little military – and some of the remnants of this military were on hand at Granger’s visit to Toronto.

Eyesers, according to Dr. Roger Luncheon, “Granger obviously has reasoned that since Burnham’s failure was caused not by too little democrac but by too little military, (he) has opted for the simple solution: more military.

“A bigger problem is the general public whose memory of the military is not one of an unblemished institution but one of a Burnhamite PNC tool that stole ballot boxes, rigged elections and destroyed democracy in Guyana,” Luncheon continued.

“Worse yet, the actual, the very same soldiers who violated their oath as officers and the constitution of Guyana are now the leaders of the opposition – the core membership consists of the PNC, and unapologetically laying claim to governing Guyana in 2015.”

Mohabir Anil Nandlall appealed to Enmore residents recently, “This election is perhaps the most important election we are going to have as a country. This is when the country will decide whether the PNC comes to power or whether the PPP continues its development agenda in this country.”

Nandalall stressed, “In those days (rigged elections and dictatorship), they used the army and their instruments to unleash terror on the people of this country as they stole our ballots. The army was used as a weapon to deny you your choice of your leaders.

“The difference is that those army officers are now in the opposition.”

By the way Eyesers, when PNC Opposition Leader Desmond Hoyte was in Toronto at a media conference I challenged him on holding a commission of inquiry into the assassination of world-renowned historian Dr. Walter Rodney . Hoyte hemed and hawed three times before blurting out: “I lost two daughters, too.”

Dr. Rickey Singh broke the story in The Caribbean Contact how the army was connected to Rodney’s death.

At the Walter Rodney Commission of Inquiry, Lt.-Col. Sydney James testified and submitted documentation that the GDF loaned high-powered military weapons to the PNC’s Ministry of National Development. Records show the GDF loaned 200-odd weapons and 155 remain missing.

As for Granger’s refusal to answer about the missing weapons, which turned up in the hands of criminals, Hoyte’s “Freedom Fighters” during the crime wave, the answer is blowing in the wind.

It’s all about protecting the “future of our children” and about “in whose hands we want to put the future of our children,” Nandlall said.

Is the Eyes guy going to Guyana to cover his third general elections? Eyesers, due to a pepper pot of internal politics – work, pleasure and so on – it’s no-go.

As a columnist worthy of my daal and rice and aloo choka?  It’s a PPP/C majority – what’s the alternative?

One Guyana / Caribbean Love!